Apple Blossoms & Squares

Apple Blossoms   8" x 8"   $250 Framed

Here is another in the series of small paintings I have been posting this week. These are apple blossoms in my garden.

This series of paintings is the first time I have ever worked in a square format. Squares are so very different from the elongated Japanese-style rectangles I prefer. In the square format you have to work a whole lot harder to create a sense of motion and energy. In this painting, the motion comes from the strong diagonal branch curving toward the sunshine. I just loved the cool soft shadows inside these flowers!  

Cupid's Garden

Cupid's Garden   8" x 8"   $250 Framed

Have you ever really looked at bleeding heart flowers? Most people stop at "Isn't it cute that they are heart-shaped?". They are the strangest flowers! Totally sensual and definitely worth a closer look. I wonder if Georgia O'Keefe ever painted them?

I'm thinking of this little group of 8" x 8" paintings as my "Arrietty" series. If you saw the recent movie by Studio Ghibli, you know just what I mean. I love the viewpoint of the borrowers, like being a little bug in the garden.

I saw this quote by Dr. Kendyl Gibbons this morning on the website of a fantastic watercolor artist named Cathy Hillegas :

The miraculous is all around us. Treasures lie at our feet, bend in the wind above our heads, and unfurl on stems at our kneecaps. Usually, we walk right by without seeing them. Every painting is an attempt to say, “Stop! Look at this. No, really. Take a minute and just look at this!”

Hellebores and Strong Women

Lenten Roses   8"x 8"   $250

If you grow hellebores (also known as Lenten Roses) in your garden, you know how wonderful it is to see them appear so early in the spring. They are the first blooms to appear in my garden in late January and they still look wonderful now as April begins. These girls are tough! They endure frost after frost and torrential spring rains. They show bravery, endurance and perseverance and still somehow they remain beautiful. Hellebores remind me of the women I admire most.

New Series of Small Spring Flowers

Crocus Couple   8"x 8"   $250

I recently finished a series of smaller watercolors of spring flowers. I am so excited to finally have these photographed and ready to share with you! This is the first of five paintings I will post this week. Each painting is only 8" x 8". They are sort of little gems.

Spring has been slow to arrive in Seattle this year. Every little blossom makes me want to get down on my hands and knees and admire this small hope of spring up close. This little pair of crocus was in my garden, 
snuggling in the cool spring sunshine. It reminds me of two young and innocent lovers nestled together against the cold, reaching for the sun. 

Woodinville Garden Tour Poster Competition Winner!

Dancing Branches 18" x 26"

I am so very honored to have my painting "Dancing Branches" selected for the 2012 Woodinville Garden Tour poster! The Woodinville Garden Tour will take place Saturday, July 21st. I know the poster competition was tough, and I am thrilled to have my work chosen!

Posters should be appearing soon in garden centers around the area. I believe that the Woodinville Garden Club will be selling the posters at each of the gardens on the tour on July 21st. Raffle tickets will also be for sale so that you can win the original painting!

I've personally done the Woodinville Garden Tour a number of times in years past, and this is truly one of the most impressive garden tours in the Seattle area! If you would like to know more about the Woodinville Garden Tour, click here.

6th Grade African Masks

It's been a while since I posted. I have some great new spring flower watercolors that I will be sharing with you as soon as the sun comes out again and I can photograph them. Stay tuned!

This past week I was lucky enough to teach a couple more art lessons to the 6th graders at my son's elementary school. We made African masks! All the kids were given the same compressed paper mask base, but all the designs were so original and imaginative!

Don't you just love what the kids did with the grasses and accessories? They really did some amazing work! I think there must be some internal connection we all make to the human face that brings out our inspiration and creativity. The kids made over 60 masks and all of them were so very cool!

A big THANK YOU again to all the wonderful parent art docents who came in to help out with the project!